Laszlo and WebOrb Alternatives for Flash Integration with ColdFusion

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Laszlo and WebOrbAlternatives for Flash
Integration with ColdFusion BlueDragon

• Charlie Arehart, CTO

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Topics

• Laszlo as an alternative to Flex
• And as a means to obtain CFMX 7 Flash Forms
• WebOrb as an alternative to Flash Remoting
• And as a solution to AJAX-style development

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About Your Speaker

• CTO, New Atlanta Communications
• Makers of BlueDragon, an alternative to
  ColdFusion
• Company HQ in Alpharetta, GA, outside Atlanta
• 8 yrs CF experience (22 yrs Enterprise IT)
• Macromedia Certified Adv CF Developer (4/5/MX)
• Former Macromedia Certified Instructor
• Past CFDJ Tech Editor, frequent contributor
• Co-author of ColdFusion MX Bible
• Frequent speaker user groups/conferences worldwide

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Laszlo as Alternative to Flex

• Im guessing youre in one of 3 camps
• Never heard of Flex or Laszlo
• Know of Flex, but not Laszlo
• Know of Laszlo from past, not impressed
• Hope to show you in 15-30 minutes why you should
  be impressed with Laszlo

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What Do Flex and Laszlo Do?

• Both Flex and Laszlo are XML-driven engines to
  build Flash
• Never need to open the Flash IDE
• XML used to describe layout, data access, etc.
• Lets see a demo

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List.lzx

• ltcanvasgt
• ltdataset name"dset"gt
• ltemployeegt
• ltfirstNamegtJohnlt/firstNamegt
• ltlastNamegtSmithlt/lastNamegt
• ltphonegt617-536-7855lt/phonegt
• lt/employeegt
• lt/datasetgt
• lttext datapath"dset/employee/firstName/text()"
  /gt
• lttext datapath"dset/employee/lastName/text()"/
  gt
• lttext datapath"dset/employee/phone/text()"/gt
• ltsimplelayout axis"x"/gt
• lt/canvasgt

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Integrating with Backends

• Can get data from server
• Can be a static XML file, file generating XML, or
  web service
• Lets see demos

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list-remote-cf.lzx

• ltcanvasgt
• ltdataset type"http" name"dset"
  src"http//localhost/laszlo/phonebook.cfm"
  autorequest"true"/gt
• ltsimplelayout axis"y"/gt
• ltview datapath"dset/phonebook/employee"gt
• ltsimplelayout axis"x"/gt
• lttext datapath"firstName/text()"/gt
• lttext datapath"lastName/text()"/gt
• lttext datapath"phone/text()"/gt
• lt/viewgt
• lt/canvasgt

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phonebook.cfm

• ltcfcontent type"text/xml"gtltcfsetting
  showdebugoutput"No"gt
• ltcfquery datasource"exampleapps" name"test"gt
• select firstname, lastname, phone, email
• from tblemployees
• lt/cfquerygt
• ltphonebookgt
• ltcfoutput query"test" maxrows"10"gt
• ltemployeegt
• ltfirstNamegtfirstnamelt/firstNamegt
• ltlastNamegtlastnamelt/lastNamegt
• ltphonegtphonelt/phonegt
• ltemailgtemaillt/emailgt
• lt/employeegt
• lt/cfoutputgt
• lt/phonebookgt

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Flash Forms Components

• Laszlo also implements common Flash Form
  components
• Tabs, Accordions, Grids, calendars, sliders, etc
• Lets see demos tabs/grid/tree , others
• http//www.openlaszlo.org/lps-latest/laszlo-explor
  er/components/components.lzx
• http//www.openlaszlo.org/lps-latest/examples/comp
  onents/style_example.lzx

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What For CFML Developers?

• Naturally, serves as alternative to Flex
• Can be used, free, with CF 4, 5, MX, or
  BlueDragon
• Easier for CFML developers than using Flash IDE
• Laszlo apps can request XML or web svcs (CFCs)
  from CFML apps
• Laszlo apps can even be generated in CFML
• Assuming CF engine (CFMX or BD) is implemented
  along with Laszlo engine
• Like Flex, Laszlo is deployed as a J2EE web
  application
• Can merge the CF/BD J2EE edition into that Laszlo
  web app
• Then a file named xxx.cfm.lzx will be processed
  as CFML, whose output will be sent to Laszlo
• Lets see a demo

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Difference from Flex?

• Flex
• Created by Macromedia (released late 2003)
• XML referred to as MXML
• Uses ActionScript for programming within
  components
• License starts at 15,000, more with support
• FlexBuilder editor, free with server
• Laszlo
• Created by Laszlo Systems (released in 2001)
• XML referred to as LZX
• Uses JavaScript for programming within components
• Released as open source (openlaszlo.org) in 2003
• Support available at additional cost
• Vendor making money also via development of
  Laszlo-based products
• IDE4Laszlo, eclipse-based editor, free from IBM

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Just a Knockoff?

• Natural to assume Laszlo is just a knockoff
• But it existed before Flex
• Just as BlueDragon existed as a Java-based CFML
  engine even before CFMX
• Or that Laszlo must be lacking
• But it solves problems Flex does not,
  particularly server-less deployment as of 3.0
• Just as BlueDragons .NET edition solves CFML
  deployment on .NET
• Can also build complex applications
• (local demo) http//localhost8080/lps-3.0/demos/d
  ashboard/dashboard.lzo?fb1lzthtml
• (web demo) http//www.openlaszlo.org/lps-latest/de
  mos/dashboard/dashboard.lzo?fb1lzthtml

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Key Laszlo 3.0 Improvements

• SOLO Deployment
• Stand-alone Open Laszlo Output
• Does not require deployment of a Laszlo server
• Once LZX files compiled in dev, resulting SWF can
  be deployed on any web server/app server
• Other Key Improvements
• Optimized for Flash Player 6 and 7
• Unicode Support
• Resizable canvas
• Integration with browser Javascript
• Support for back button, right-click context
  menu, mouse wheel
• Now called OpenLaszlo
• Previously called Laszlo Presentation Server

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Whos Using Laszlo?

• Some key companies with real live apps
• Behr Paints
• www.behr.comLets see a demo (152 secs) or
  visit the sites yourself
• La Quinta Inns
• www.lq.com/lq/map/index.jspLets see a demo (38
  secs)
• Cooptual
• www.cooptual.comLets see a demo (30 secs)
• Allegra
• www.allegra.com/managementTools/meetAllergyBuddy.d
  o
• Others at http//www.openlaszlo.org/wiki/Laszlo_A
  pplications

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Finding Out More

• Laszlo
• www.openlaszlo.org
• www.laszlosystems.com
• Flex
• www.macromedia.com/software/flex/

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Other Laszlo Resources

• Demonstrations/Examples
• www.openlaszlo.org/lps-latest/laszlo-explorer/
• www.laszlosystems.com/lps/laszlo-in-ten-minutes/
• www.laszlosystems.com/developers/learn/sample-apps
  /
• IDE4Laszlo
• alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/ide4laszlo
• www.mylaszlo.com
• Free hosting of Laszlo apps, components
• www.laszlosystems.com/services/training/
• www.openlaszlo.org/wiki
• www.planetlaszlo.org (blog)

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Summary of Laszlo

• Compelling (free) alternative to Flex
• Latest release (3) solves issues previously held
  against it
• Adds ability to deploy with or without a J2EE
  server
• Whether on .NET, ColdFusion (even CF5),
  BlueDragon, etc.
• Capable of integrating with CFML via CFCs, web
  services, on either BlueDragon or ColdFusion
• Or simply by CFML pages generating XML
• Can create compelling rich internet applications
• Offers Flash Forms components, like CFMX 7

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WebOrb for FR and Ajax

• As before, Im guessing youre in one of 3 camps
• Never heard of Flash Remoting or WebOrb
• Know of FR, but not WebOrb
• Know of FlashOrb from past, not newer WebOrb
• Hope to show you in 15-30 minutes why you should
  be impressed with WebOrb

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Rich Internet Apps

• Weve heard this from Macromedia
• Their focus is on Flash, also possible with AJAX
• More desktop-like applications, over the web
• Response without page refresh
• Enhanced drag and drop interfaces
• Lets see some demos flash ajax cfc

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Versus Traditional Web Apps

• Alters traditional request/response loop
• Initial request is same, subsequent is
  asynchronous
• Retrieves only the data that is needed
• usually using SOAP or some other XML-based web
  services dialects
• Flash (or JavaScript/ajax) on client processes
  web server response
• Both client and server performance is improved
• Far less bandwidth
• Reduced processing on server with more powerful
  UI capability
• Reduced processing on client through more
  effective processing

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Concepts

• Flash Remoting
• Use Flash IDE to develop interfaces
• Client/server communications via AMF
  (ActionScript Msg Format)
• AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
• Use normal HTML editing tools
• Structure
• HTML (or XHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets for
  presenting information
• Document Object Model, JavaScript to dynamically
  display and interact with the information
  presented
• XML, XSLT and the XMLHttpRequest object to
  interchange and manipulate data asynchronously
  with the web server

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Many Possibilities

• Multiple client and server-side integration
  points
• Back-end/Server components
• Can be CFML, CFCs, JSPs/servlets, ASP.NET, and
  more
• Communicated directly or via web services

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Looking at Client Code

• Lets review both the Flash and AJAX front-ends
• Does involve a good bit of coding
• Each has strengths and will appeal to folks
  differently
• Flash front-end developed with Flash IDE
• Flash FLA file
• AJAX front-end developed with any editor
• HTML file
• Do we need to fear cross-browser issues?
• WebOrb as a framework builds in support for
  different browsers

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About WebOrb

• Deployable as both J2EE and .NET web apps
• Available in two packages
• Standard Edition
• Free for most uses
• AJAX in java/.net, flash in java
• Professional Edition
• Adds flash in .net, other enterprise features
• 799/cpu
• Available as free eval/dev edition
• More than just a replacement for Flash Remoting
• WebOrb offers several advantages
• Rich client system (ajax via js/flash, and msg
  svr), as well as flash remoting
• Supports calling CFCs on BlueDragon w/out Web Svcs

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Finding Out More

• WebOrb
• www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb
• http//www.themidnightcoders.com/examples/
• Flash Remoting
• www.macromedia.com/software/flashremoting/
• Book
• FlashMX 2004 Professional for Server Geeks, Nate
  Weiss
• Comparison to other AJAX solutions (DWR,
  Ajax.NET, Sajax)
• http//www.themidnightcoders.com/weborb/comparison
  .htm

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Other CF/Ajax solutions

• As long as were discussing AJAX here, some may
  want to know of other options
• CFAjax
• http//www.indiankey.com/cfajax/
• See example at http//simplicityweb.co.uk/fusebox/
  fb41ajax/
• Neuromancer
• http//www.robrohan.com/projects/neuromancer/
• Dan Switzers QForms
• http//www.pengoworks.com/qforms/v2/demo/demo_dhtm
  l_xmlHttpRequest.htm

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Summary of WebOrb

• Compelling alternative to Flash Remoting
• Free and commercial editions
• Offers Flash Remoting and Ajax-based integration
• Deployable as J2EE or .NET web application
• Works with ColdFusion and BlueDragon (and others)
• Capable of integrating with CFML via CFCs
• Directly on BlueDragon
• Or via web services on either BlueDragon or
  ColdFusion
• Offers advantages over Flash Remoting

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A Powerful Trio

• BlueDragon, WebOrb, and OpenLaszlo (BlueWOOL)
• Offer compelling alternatives to CF, Flex, Flash
  Remoting
• Each in its own way offers advantages
• Together, or alone, consider them where they may
  fit

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Contact Information

• Charlie Arehart
• CTO, New Atlanta Communications
• charlie_at_newatlanta.com
• newatlanta.com/bluedragon/
• [phone]